Design errors - FRANCE

With full sails and no visible crew, so cloge to the border, is at least unusual.

Discus throwing without protection fence while runners are passing nearby, a very dangerous situation.

1900

The R of République is inverted.

1903

Lady in fluttering garments which indicate that she is sowing againts te wind.

1917

No visible reins to steer the horses.

1923

Not coherent : the letter U is represented as a V, as well as an U.

1929

The Pont du GARD has 4 little arches between two pillars, not 3 as designed on the stamp.

1934

As the engraver of this stamp had no portrait of Jacques Cartier, he took himself as model for this stamp.

1936

You do not need to be a specialist to understand that a plane cannot fly correctly without a tail !

1936

On the stamp the big statue is placed close to the left pillar. A photograph of the monument shows that the statue stands near the right pillar.

1936

Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier was born on April 30th 1757, not in 1754.

1936

Wrong : conquète - Correct : conquête.

1937

Stamp issued to celebrate the 100th anniversary of DESCARTES' book : DISCOURS SUR LA METHODE. Unfortunately the stamp mentioned DISCOURS DE LA METHODE. The wrong stamp was soon withdrawn, and replaced by a correct one.

1937

Only one power supply is required, there is no reason why the second one was also connected.

1937

Inverted representation on the stamp of the original picture.

1938

The caduceus is the staff carried by Hermes 5Mercurius)in Greek mythology. It is a short staff entwined by two serpents, sometimes surmounted by wings.

1938

Due to the death of the Queen's mother, the British royal visit to France was postponed, and took place on July 19th 1938 instead of June 28th.

1938

The big wheel of this mine was featured in the wrong direction.

1938

The Caduceus has two little wings that have been omitted on this stamp.

1939

Comparing to the size of the baby, the head of the mother is far too big.

1939

The Clémenceau was never completed. He was bombed and destroyed when he was still under construction.

1939

The name of this painting is not La Lettre, but L'inspiration favorable.

1940

No reins and no harness, so the woman is doing all the work.

1941

Wrong : OUTREMER - Correct OUTRE-MER

1941

As the colour of the olive branch in the coat of arms of Reims is green, it should have been represented in a dark colour in a black and with representation.

1941

The colour of the fleur-de-lys is gold, thus a dark colour should have been chosen.

1941

As the colour of the lion and the fleur-de lys is gold, they should have been represented in a dark colour.

1942

Jean de Vienne was not the first admiral of France, since this title was created in 1270, this title was given at least at ten people before him.

1943

This is not the Duke of Sully who was bald, but is son born in 1583. Furthermore Sully was not born in 1560 but in 1559.

1945

The engraver of this stamp was not the non-existing Mazelin, but the famous engraver Gandon, who could not use his real name for political reasons.

1946

Only 4 toes at the right foot.

1946

Missing harness and reins to stear these horses.

1946

Inverted picture of the painting 'Le cachet de cire' by J.B. Chardin.

1946

Wrong : Roc-Amadour - Correct : Rocamadour

1946

François Villon died around 1463, certainly not in 1498.

1946

Charles VII is wearing a decoration that was introduced by his son Louis XI. Compare to the aoriginal painting.

1946

Roc-Amadour or Rocamadour ? Both are used, but officially one is correct.

1946

Jean de Gerson was born in 1363 and died in 1429 (thus 1362-1428 is wrong)

1947

Both street lamps cannot be lit, as the electrical wire has been cut.

1947

The two stars were ommitted in this fleur-de lys symbol.

1948

It is strange that two left-handed people are shown on the same stamp. The most probable explanation : the original picture was inverted when the stamp was designed.

1948

When he died, Leclerc was a five-stars general. And why is the fag missing on the cathedral of Strasbourg, as he had declared that he would not stop fightng before.

1948

Compare the haircut on the stamp with that on the picture : it is obvious that on the stamp, the scientist A. Calmette was represented inverted.

1948

This temple is located in an area that never belonged to the French-India territory

1949

Inverted reproduction comparing with the original portrait in the museum of Versailles

1949

When the American flag had 48 stars, they were arranged in six rows of eight stars, and not in eight rows of six stars.

1951

This mail bag is much too big, and dragging it over the floor would not be allowed.

1952

A French Marchal has seven stars on his uniform. As Marshal de Lattre de Tassigny recieved this title after his death, no picture of him existed with seven stars, so he was featured in his general uniform.

1953

General Leclerc had declared that he would not enter Strasbourg again, without the French flag at the top of the cathedral. This was forgotten and afterwards corrected.

1953

This stamp shows neither the tour of 1903, neither the tour of 1953

1954

The Légion d'Honneur was created in 1802. The celebration of its 150th anniversary in 1954 thus was two years late.

1954

The abbreviation of Franc is Fand not f. ANd the red and yellow colours have been mixed up in the upper part of the stamp.

1954

The exact name of this person was not LAVALETTE, but Antoine-Marie Chamans, comte de La Valette.

1954

This stamp was said tp show Baccarat cristal, but shows three glasses of the Anmaur collection made at Val Saint Lambert in Belgium

1955

The man on the Nautilus' deck is busy taking the altitude of the sun ....in the moon light.

1955

This battleship is not La Capricieuse, the stamp was made from a design of another ship, La Galathée.

1955

Wrong : LE BON - Correct : LEBON | He invented the illuminating gas from the distillation of wood. Due to the high temperature, this was made in fireclay containers, not in glass.

1955

Wrong representation of the border between France and Italy.

1955

Wrong : 1793-1959 - Correct : 1793-1857

1956

According to the way the players are dressed, three different teams seem to play against each other.

1957

Inverted name of the engraver on the left on this stamp.

1957

A man is being X-rayed, with his arms in a wrong position for a correct chest picture.

1957

The Mozart featured on this stamp does not resemble to any known portrait of him.

1958

Jean BART was born in 1650, not in 1651.

1958

The Unesco headquarters have one row additional of balconies comparing to the stamp.

1958

The real colours of this Bayeux tapestry are completely different from what is shown on the stamp.

1958

Wrong colour of the rocks on which the eagle is standing.

1959

Medal of the French Academy : the medal's ribbon us much too long.

1960

The Order of Liberation was created on November 16th 1940, not on the 17th.

1960

On one side, the curtains are fixed outside the windiow.

1960

Wrong : Grand Benard - Correct : Grand Bénare.

1961

This is not Jean NICOT, the one who brought tobacco to Europe, but an unknown Dutch merchant, Jean NIQUET.

1961

The designer did not made the effort of forgot to represent a big part of the city of Dinan in the Rance Valley.

1962

In the arms of Paris, the lilies do not have a white colour, but a gold colour.

1963

At the left, the statue of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius at the Capitlole in Rome is shown inversed.

1964

This is not Jean-Nicolas CORVISART, but his nephew Louis.

1964

Soldiers always carry their rifle on the right shoulder

1964

Pope Sylvester II is wearing a modern tiara that was introduced centuries after his death.

1965

Although the wind fills the sail, this sailboat remains straight on the water

1965

The correct abbreviation of hectare is ha., without capital letter.

1966

It is historically proven that Charlemagne was beardless.

1966

From a painting of Eugène Charpentier, the battle of Solférino. De soldier watching the scene was moved to fit on the stamp..

1967

There is no hyphen between SAINT and LOUIS.

1969

Du Guesclin was not born around 1314, but in 1320.

1969

This type of parchute was not yet in use during the Normandy battle

1969

General Leclerc had declared that he would not enter Strasbourg again, without the French flag at the top of the cathedral. This was forgotten on this stamp, not on others.

1969

The city name VILNO is not correct. The city of Vilnius was called Vina or Wilno.

1969

The right wing of this castel should not be visible. See picture taken from the same position.

1970

According to the photograph, this aerotrain has seven and not eight propeller blades.

1970

On the stamp, Pelletier and Caventou are looking at the formula of Quinine, a medecine against Malaria that they discovered in 1820. But the exact formula of this medicine waas only determined more than 40 years later.

1970

Why represent a lefthanded handball player ? Probably because the original picture was inverted on the stamp ?

1971

The French National Academy of Medecine was founded in 1820. So this stamp, issued in 1971 to celebrate the 150th anniversary came one year too late.

1972

As the Games of 1916, 1940 and 1944 did not take place, The Munich games were the 17th Olympiade, not the 20th.

1972

The flag hold by Napoleon at the Arcole battle was not the French tricolore flag, but the flag of the 5th infantry battalion.

1972

According to the French law, living humans should not appear on stamps. Apparently an exception was made for the French champion Jacques Anquetil.

1973

Louis Pasteur was born in 1822. Why wait till 1973 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of his birthday ?

1974

The Hotel des Invalides was founded in April 1674, not in 1675.

1975

Inverted portrait of the sculptor Jean Baptiste CARPEAUX.

1976

On the stamp the clock of the famous bell-tower La gros-Horloge in Rouen has two pointers, in reality there is only one.

1977

Table tennis player with a very personal style.

1979

The first 'Boules de Moulins' came in use in January 1871. The date 1870 is thus errneous.

1980

Albrecht Dürer is so famous, why hen translate Albrecht to Albert ?

1980

Sailboats with deployed sails close to the border. Futhermore this landing took place in 1779, not 1770.

1981

According to the international postal rules, the country name is obligatory on stamps.

1983

The palmtree represented in the garden of this castel does not grow in Jarnac.

1983

Wrong initials : M.N. - Correct initials are : A.J. (Anne-Jean).

1983

The Aconitum pyrenaicum has yellow flovers, contrary to other species of the same family with blue flowers..

1984

Jacques Cartier, who died inn 1557, is smoking a pipe, that was introduced only in 1584.

1986

As this scientist was the first to isolate the fluor, a better formula should have been 2HF -> H2 + F2

1987

Wrong letter N instead of U in Institut, correct in Pasteur.

1989

In the second row of a few blocs, the name of the engraver FOLON is missing.

1989

Valentin Hauy written in Braille

1989

The angel on the column at the Place the la Bastille in Paris is looking in the wrong direction.

1989

In the text of the Delaration of the Rights, 'devoirs' was erroneously transcripted to 'pouvoirs'.

1990

Inverted representation of this accordion

1990

Skijump with only one ski was not an Olympic event at the games of Albertville.

1991

Fébus is not correct, the correct name is Phoebus or Phébus.

1991

Truncated portrait made by Matisse, and used without authorization. The signature of the painter was moved.

1992

Wrong illustration of solidarity, as without fixed supports, all the birds will crash.

1994

Wrong : DALHIAS - Correct : DAHLIAS

1994

This stamp honours the Liberators of France, but forgets the Canadian flag, despite the thousands of Canadese soldiers that partecipated to D-Day.

1995

No preliminary cut to force the tree to fall in the correct direction,and in normal circumstances, a tree is never cut wen it has leaves.

1995

Those are not French Camargue bulls (with vertical horns) but Spanish bulls with horizontal horns.

1995

This reliquary was not represented horrizontally on the stamp

1995

The mountain and the church on the background do not exist in reality.

1995

This stamp was issued on Dec 12th 1995, and nit in 1996.

1995

Mirrored featuring of this church

1996

The cigarette was removed from the original picture.

1996

The chuch of Domrémy is not located behind the house of Jeanne d'Arc, and has no needle-shaped tower.

1997

Wrong landscape : the city of Millau-Aveyron is not located as close to the canyon of Tarn.

1997

The current French machine cancellations have fiver lines, not four.

1998

There is no reason why Radium is written with a capital letter.

1998

Almost all flags on this stamp do not exist, or do not belong to the teals that competed for the Soccer Champioship 1998.

1999

According to the big hand on this clock, it is not yet 12 o'clock, but the little one tells us it is already past twelve.

1999

Float of the fishing line is pictured upside down.

2000

Instead of showing an old washing machine from 1901, the stamp shows a modern one.

2000

During the 1968 Grenoble Olympic Games, Jean Claude Killy won his races wearing number 14, not 16.

2001

No accents are used for information on creditcards.

2001

The direction of thelaser beam is not perpendicular to the eye, and will damage it.

2001

The blood circulation in the head and the left leg is interrupted.

2001

The digital characters used in clocks and electronic devices, did not yet exist when the first man was launched into space.

2002

The designer of this stamp obviously does not know how the bicycle is designed.

2004

The map in the background looks real, but does not represent a known location.

2007

This is not the Cascade de Doubs but the source de Lison.

2007

This is not the Ballon d´Alsace, but ´LeGrand Ballon´ near Guebwiller.

2008

Stamp showing the Crane-constellation. There is a little mistake in the Greek translation : TERANOS instead of GERANOS.

2011

Wrong : ARTIFICES - Correct : ARTIFICE. See other stamp.

2013

The 2 right wheels atr missing.

2013

The present Russian part of East Prussia (Königsberg) has disappeared under the water of the Baltic sea.